John Jay talks about Chinatown and Portland
A great Oregonian interview with John Jay about what’s next for Portland’s Chinatown and Old Town.
The recession has ended Portland’s recent Gilded Age of development and deal making. But many important people still see growth and expansion as inevitable, in particular in Chinatown. A rejuvenated neighborhood, they say, is essential to make downtown more complete and thriving.
One of those people is John Jay, an executive creative director at Wieden+Kennedy and one of the most sought after consiglieres in advertising. Jay has a personal and financial stake in Chinatown’s renaissance. Three years ago, he began leasing a second-story space at Northwest Fifth Avenue and Couch Street, an airy corner with vertiginous views of his favorite part of town that Jay dubbed “Studio J.”
This is where Jay and his product-designer wife, Janet, hold court, entertaining visiting business executives from around the world, for example. It’s also where they hatch personal business projects.
One of those projects is a restaurant called Ping, a collaboration with Andy Ricker of Pok Pok. It is slated to open next year in the space once occupied by the legendary den of drinking, Hung Far Low, on Northwest Fourth Ave.
Jay is savvy, driven and smart enough to help push a transformation in Chinatown. You may not have heard of him, but you’ve surely been touched as a consumer by Jay’s strategic brilliance. For 13 years he worked at Bloomingdale’s as a creative and marketing director before joining advertising powerhouse Wieden+Kennedy in 1993. Within three years, Jay became a partner in the Portland agency. He now spends roughly half the year in Asia where he helped open the agency’s offices in Tokyo, Shanghai and India.
Recently, Jay talked to The Oregonian about Chinatown — its political struggles and social tensions, its potential as a business and cultural hub, even a little bit about his personal experiences as a Chinese American. It’s a sign of his work ethic that after the late afternoon interview he e-mailed additional thoughts — at around 3 a.m., which he says is when he normally finishes his workday.